Jakarta. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo warned Friday that climate change could drive the world into catastrophic hunger, so Indonesia should install more water pumps to prevent its people from going hungry.

A robust water pump system can also help the Indonesian government keep inflation --  which stood at 2.84 percent as of May -- in check, Jokowi said.

Speaking in front of senior government officials in Jakarta, the Indonesian leader repeated the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s warning that the world is on the brink of a “climate hell” amid temperature rises. According to Jokowi, the world is also at risk of facing severe hunger by 2050. About 50 million farmers will run out of water for their crops, prompting food shortages if nothing is done.

“Let’s not play games when it comes to drought and heat waves. … It is a matter of human life. Production is set to decline because of the heat waves and if we don’t take care of the water problem. Then our [food] supply will drop, followed by rising prices and inflation. … We need to watch out for this, and plan well because it is our people who become the victims,” Jokowi said.

Jokowi claimed to have instructed his government to install water pumps, particularly in areas that produce rice -- an Indonesian staple crop.

“I have urged them to immediately set up water pumps. We will install around 20,000 water pumps in areas which mainly produce rice, but not limited to rice,” Jokowi said while adding that the pumps would help direct the river water into the paddy fields.

Central Java already has around 1,400 water pumps, and will likely add more. In the past 10 years of his presidency, Indonesia has constructed 43 out of the targeted 61 dams. Jokowi, however, said that the dams were not enough.

“We must make sure that this water flows into the paddy fields. There should be primary, secondary, and even tertiary irrigation. So we can help boost its production … and keep the inflation from rising,” Jokowi said.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported that Indonesian rice production had dropped by 1.39 percent year-on-year (yoy) to 31.1 million tons in 2023. BPS attributed the decline to the climate phenomenon of El Nino. 

Agricultural Minister Andi Amran Sulaiman recently said that his ministry would reallocate Rp 7 trillion ($427.5 million) of its total budget to help strategic crop production. Some of the refocused budget will go into purchasing water pumps. Indonesia is seeking to produce 32 million tons of rice throughout 2024.

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